Definitions and typologies

Definitions and typologies as used in EPATEE (about evaluation of energy savings)

The following document gathers the definitions and typologies used in the EPATEE toolbox and documents. A table of content at the beginning of the document enables to search for the term or typology you are interested in: Definitions and typologies related to the evaluation of energy savings

Other glossaries of common terms related to evaluation (in general, not specific to evaluation of energy savings)

The website of the European Evaluation Society includes a webpage listing a few glossaries in different languages: https://www.europeanevaluation.org/resources/multilingual-glossaries-evaluation

The first glossary of this list (Glossary of Key Terms in Evaluation and Results Based Management, from the OECD DAC Network on Development Evaluation) provides a useful set of definitions for terms commonly used in the general evaluation literature, with correspondence between English, French and Spanish (see the list of terms on pp.9-13 of the pdf): http://www.oecd.org/development/peer-reviews/2754804.pdf

General typology of evaluation approaches (not specific to evaluation of energy savings)

The international initiative BetterEvaluation (betterevaluation.org) provides a list of commonly used evaluation approaches, where “evaluation approach” is defined as “an integrated package of options (methods or processes).”

Type of evaluation approach	Brief explanation
Appreciative Inquiry	A strengths-based approach designed to support ongoing learning and adaptation by identifying and investigating outlier examples of good practice and ways of increasing their frequency.
Beneficiary Assessment	An approach that focuses on assessing the value of an intervention as perceived by the (intended) beneficiaries, thereby aiming to give voice to their priorities and concerns.
Case study	A research design that focuses on understanding a unit (person, site or project) in its context, which can use a combination of qualitative and quantitative data.
Causal Link Monitoring	An approach designed to support ongoing learning and adaptation, which identifies the processes required to achieve desired results, and then observes whether those processes take place, and how.
Collaborative Outcomes Reporting	An impact evaluation approach based on contribution analysis, with the addition of processes for expert review and community review of evidence and conclusions.
Contribution Analysis	An impact evaluation approach that iteratively maps available evidence against a theory of change, then identifies and addresses challenges to causal inference.
Critical System Heuristics	An approach used to surface, elaborate, and critically consider the options and implications of boundary judgments, that is, the ways in which people/groups decide what is relevant to what is being evaluated.
Democratic Evaluation	Various ways of doing evaluation in ways that support democratic decision making, accountability and/or capacity.
Developmental Evaluation	An approach designed to support ongoing learning and adaptation, through iterative, embedded evaluation.
Empowerment Evaluation	A participatory approach designed to provide groups with the tools and knowledge so they can monitor and evaluate their own performance.
Horizontal Evaluation	An approach to learning and improvement that combines self-assessment by local participants and external review by peers.
Innovation History	A particular type of case study used to jointly develop an agreed narrative of how an innovation was developed, including key contributors and processes, to inform future innovation efforts.
Institutional Histories	A particular type of case study used to create a narrative of how institutional arrangements have evolved over time and have created and contributed to more effective ways to achieve project or program goals.
Most Significant Change	Approach primarily intended to clarify differences in values among stakeholders by collecting and collectively analysing personal accounts of change.
Outcome Harvesting	An impact evaluation approach suitable for retrospectively identifying emergent impacts by collecting evidence of what has changed and, then, working backwards, determining whether and how an intervention has contributed to these changes.
Outcome Mapping	An impact evaluation approach which unpacks an initiative’s theory of change, provides a framework to collect data on immediate, basic changes that lead to longer, more transformative change, and allows for the plausible assessment of the initiative’s contribution to results via ‘boundary partners’.
Participatory Evaluation	A range of approaches that engage stakeholders (especially intended beneficiaries) in conducting the evaluation and/or making decisions about the evaluation.
Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) / Participatory Learning for Action (PLA)	A participatory approach which enables farmers to analyse their own situation and develop a common perspective on natural resource management and agriculture at village level.
Positive Deviance	A strengths-based approach to learning and improvement that involves intended evaluation users in identifying ‘outliers’ – those with exceptionally good outcomes – and understanding how they have achieved these.
Qualitative Impact Assessment Protocol (QUIP)	An impact evaluation approach without a control group that uses narrative causal statements elicited directly from intended project beneficiaries.
Randomised Controlled Trials (RCT)	An impact evaluation approach that compares results between a randomly assigned control group and experimental group or groups to produce an estimate of the mean net impact of an intervention.
Realist Evaluation	An approach especially to impact evaluation which examines what works for whom in what circumstances through what causal mechanisms, including changes in the reasoning and resources of participants.
Social Return on Investment (SROI)	An participatory approach to value-for-money evaluation that identifies a broad range of social outcomes, not only the direct outcomes for the intended beneficiaries of an intervention.
Success Case Method	An impact evaluation approach based on identifying and investigating the most successful cases and seeing if their results can justify the cost of the intervention (such as a training course).
Utilisation-Focused Evaluation	Uses the intended uses of the evaluation by its primary intended users to guide decisions about how an evaluation should be conducted.

Source: https://www.betterevaluation.org/en/approaches (where more details about each approach can be found).

BetterEvaluation is an “international collaboration to improve the practice and theory of evaluation by creating and curating information on choosing and using evaluation methods and processes, including managing evaluations and strengthening evaluation capacity”. The founders are Australia’s and New Zealand’s public bodies (for more details, see https://www.betterevaluation.org/en/about).